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Boris Wertz

Founding Partner, Version One Ventures · 2 appearances on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

investorfounderexecutiveoperator@bwertz ↗LinkedIn ↗versionone.vc ↗

After co-founding online bookstore JustBooks and serving as COO of AbeBooks through its 2008 acquisition by Amazon, Boris Wertz transitioned into venture investing. In 2012, he founded early-stage venture firm Version One Ventures and also served as a board partner at Andreessen Horowitz.

24statements → 10claims → 5claims resolved → 100%fully supported → 3.83/5average certainty → 1.92/5average debate potential → 4.5/5argument clarity · the sources → 10said about them ↓

5 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 5 not checkable as stated how the 10 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

4 predictions · 6 assertions · 3 opinions · 7 insights · 4 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 10 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 5 are resolved, and 5 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Boris argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Prediction Held up
Wertz: Telegram will probably raise up to $2B in ICO
“They certainly have had a lot of financial interest in the ICO, and will probably raise up to two billion or so.”
Boris Wertz May 14, 2018 ▶ 13:42 20VC: Why Crypto Is The Biggest Disruptor To Hit VC In A Decade, The State of Crypto Today & Why Investing In Decentralized Platforms Requires A New Mental Model with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
100% certainty 3
100% certainty 4
none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →

4.5 / 5 directness 4.7 · coherence 4.9 · precision 4.4 · compression 3.9

answered every one of 16 assessed questions directly

This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →

How they sound: speaking style how? →

236 words/min while actually speaking · 48.1 um and uh per 1k words

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 3,867 words across 1 episode of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 2 rated episodes:

host pushback ▾ 2.5/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 1.5/10
setup questions received 63%

Everything Boris Wertz said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Prediction Not checkable as stated
Wertz: Crypto Value Will Accrue Primarily at Protocol Level
“A lot of the value will accrue at the protocol level and will be monetized through a token business model, right?”
Boris Wertz May 14, 2018 ▶ 6:45 20VC: Why Crypto Is The Biggest Disruptor To Hit VC In A Decade, The State of Crypto Today & Why Investing In Decentralized Platforms Requires A New Mental Model with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Wertz: Top Crypto Founders Are Returning to Private Pre-ICO Rounds
“A lot of the smartest entrepreneurs are going back to privately negotiated rounds, at least for the first step.”
Boris Wertz May 14, 2018 ▶ 12:02 20VC: Why Crypto Is The Biggest Disruptor To Hit VC In A Decade, The State of Crypto Today & Why Investing In Decentralized Platforms Requires A New Mental Model with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Wertz: Most successful crypto projects will combine centralized and decentralized elements
“I actually believe that truth is really in the middle, that centralized platforms are amazing for efficiency. Decentralized platforms are amazing for trust. And I think the most successful project is going to pick the best out of both worlds. And it's not the …”
Boris Wertz May 14, 2018 ▶ 19:57 20VC: Why Crypto Is The Biggest Disruptor To Hit VC In A Decade, The State of Crypto Today & Why Investing In Decentralized Platforms Requires A New Mental Model with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Insight
Wertz: Early-stage marketplaces must almost always focus first on supply
“Ultimately you usually always have to start with supply and kind of getting something onto the platform that key people can buy.”
Boris Wertz Dec 28, 2015 ▶ 16:15 20 VC: The Ultimate Guide To Marketplaces with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Opinion
Wertz: Crypto Technology Maturity Is Currently Equivalent to Internet in 1995
“Technology wise, we feel like it's 95. It's kind of around the emergence of the Netscape browser, which at the time was kind of the first time that, you know, kind of the masses could really use the Internet. And that's really feels we're around that in terms …”
Boris Wertz May 14, 2018 ▶ 4:37 20VC: Why Crypto Is The Biggest Disruptor To Hit VC In A Decade, The State of Crypto Today & Why Investing In Decentralized Platforms Requires A New Mental Model with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Insight
Wertz: Crypto protocol success requires evaluating team execution beyond technical white papers
“I think, first of all, I think it's super important, especially if you can invest at the protocol level to really understand the technical details of a white paper. At the same time, I think to build a successful protocol, build a successful community of devel…”
Boris Wertz May 14, 2018 ▶ 10:07 20VC: Why Crypto Is The Biggest Disruptor To Hit VC In A Decade, The State of Crypto Today & Why Investing In Decentralized Platforms Requires A New Mental Model with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Prediction Held up
Wertz: Telegram will probably raise up to $2B in ICO
“They certainly have had a lot of financial interest in the ICO, and will probably raise up to two billion or so.”
Boris Wertz May 14, 2018 ▶ 13:42 20VC: Why Crypto Is The Biggest Disruptor To Hit VC In A Decade, The State of Crypto Today & Why Investing In Decentralized Platforms Requires A New Mental Model with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Wertz: Native crypto platforms will likely outperform retrofitted platforms
“I think it's going to be generally hard to retrofit in an existing platform, especially an existing platform at the scale of Telegram to crypto. But, you know, jury's out. I personally believe that native crypto projects will most likely be more successful.”
Boris Wertz May 14, 2018 ▶ 14:17 20VC: Why Crypto Is The Biggest Disruptor To Hit VC In A Decade, The State of Crypto Today & Why Investing In Decentralized Platforms Requires A New Mental Model with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Insight
Wertz: VCs require startups to scale to $100M revenue in 5-7 years
“When we look at those opportunities through the lens of a Venture capitalists that needs to make a certain return for their fund and hence kind of has a requirement in, in, in, in, to invest in companies that can scale to, you know, a hundred million dollars i…”
Boris Wertz Dec 28, 2015 ▶ 14:41 20 VC: The Ultimate Guide To Marketplaces with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Opinion
Wertz: On-demand 'Uber for X' startup business models are overhyped
“As much as we're excited about on demand I think it's also a little bit overhyped. At some stage, you know, kind of people said kind of, I'm going to create the Uber for X, for vertical X. So there was a lot of this on demand for here, Uber for X et cetera. I …”
Boris Wertz Dec 28, 2015 ▶ 25:08 20 VC: The Ultimate Guide To Marketplaces with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Assertion Supported
Wertz: Crypto Market Cap ($500B) Lags Far Behind 2000 Dot-Com Peak ($4T)
“When you think Internet bubble kind of burst in March, 2000 at the time, it was about a four trillion dollar market cap. With cryptocurrencies, we're now currently at about five hundred billion.”
Boris Wertz May 14, 2018 ▶ 4:59 20VC: Why Crypto Is The Biggest Disruptor To Hit VC In A Decade, The State of Crypto Today & Why Investing In Decentralized Platforms Requires A New Mental Model with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Wertz: ICOs Present Global Competition for Venture Capital
“So there's suddenly a tremendous global platform for raising money for startups, and that's certainly a new competition for these VCs.”
Boris Wertz May 14, 2018 ▶ 7:22 20VC: Why Crypto Is The Biggest Disruptor To Hit VC In A Decade, The State of Crypto Today & Why Investing In Decentralized Platforms Requires A New Mental Model with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Assertion Supported
Wertz: Most VC LP Agreements Prohibit Direct Token Investments
“A lot of the LP agreements with current funds are not allowing for, you know, actually directly investing in token currencies.”
Boris Wertz May 14, 2018 ▶ 7:47 20VC: Why Crypto Is The Biggest Disruptor To Hit VC In A Decade, The State of Crypto Today & Why Investing In Decentralized Platforms Requires A New Mental Model with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Disclosure
Wertz: Version One Ventures invested in Polychain and Metastable
“So for example, we invest in Polychain and Metastable.”
Boris Wertz May 14, 2018 ▶ 16:26 20VC: Why Crypto Is The Biggest Disruptor To Hit VC In A Decade, The State of Crypto Today & Why Investing In Decentralized Platforms Requires A New Mental Model with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Disclosure
Boris Wertz: Version One invested in Coinbase's Series D funding round
“So he invested in Coinbase late last year. And you know, as you know, this was a series D, so it's a little bit later than we usually invest in, but we really thought that Coinbase can be one of these iconic companies of the crypto ages, and you know, we're in…”
Boris Wertz May 14, 2018 ▶ 21:30 20VC: Why Crypto Is The Biggest Disruptor To Hit VC In A Decade, The State of Crypto Today & Why Investing In Decentralized Platforms Requires A New Mental Model with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Insight
Wertz: Transactional buyer-seller relationships make marketplaces easier to scale
“And it's much easier to build up a big marketplace if you have A transactional relationship in, in between buyers and sellers.”
Boris Wertz Dec 28, 2015 ▶ 13:46 20 VC: The Ultimate Guide To Marketplaces with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Insight
Wertz: Marketplace scale is driven primarily by power sellers, not hobbyists
“You see in almost every marketplace that they usually start out on the supply side with very small sellers, hobby sellers, or people that only put a little bit of their inventory onto the marketplace. Over time, like, most of the development and the scale of t…”
Boris Wertz Dec 28, 2015 ▶ 19:53 20 VC: The Ultimate Guide To Marketplaces with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Disclosure
Wertz: Version One went seven months without making an investment in 2016
“Second half of 2016, I had not done an investment for seven months for version one.”
Boris Wertz May 14, 2018 ▶ 18:15 20VC: Why Crypto Is The Biggest Disruptor To Hit VC In A Decade, The State of Crypto Today & Why Investing In Decentralized Platforms Requires A New Mental Model with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Opinion
Wertz: Andreessen Horowitz operates internally like an agile startup
“Andreessen Horowitz is kind of a daily example of how they try out things, how they innovate, how they come up with new ideas, quickly test them. So it's amazing to see how it's really being run like a startup that is continuously trying to develop new ideas a…”
Boris Wertz May 14, 2018 ▶ 21:09 20VC: Why Crypto Is The Biggest Disruptor To Hit VC In A Decade, The State of Crypto Today & Why Investing In Decentralized Platforms Requires A New Mental Model with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Disclosure
Version One Ventures invests from a $35M second early-stage fund
“Fund one was an eighty million dollar fund, and currently we're investing out of our second fund which is a thirty-five million dollar early stage fund.”
Boris Wertz Dec 28, 2015 ▶ 5:03 20 VC: The Ultimate Guide To Marketplaces with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Insight
Wertz: Content strategy forces VC learning and efficiently educates founders
“You know, when we put out content either in the form of blog posts or kind of a book like that, we're always thinking about three things. The first one is by writing content and thinking through a specific question that we have in our head. We learn a lot. And…”
Boris Wertz Dec 28, 2015 ▶ 10:03 20 VC: The Ultimate Guide To Marketplaces with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Assertion Supported
Wertz: Uber seeded supply by paying idle drivers in new cities
“Uber has done a very good job whenever they launch a city to initially pay their drivers to kind of drive around idle just to have inventory and be quick to pick up the next passenger once there's an order coming in.”
Boris Wertz Dec 28, 2015 ▶ 16:55 20 VC: The Ultimate Guide To Marketplaces with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Insight
Wertz: Gross merchandise sales and take rate define marketplace potential
“I think gross merchandise sales and take rate. I mean, gross merchandise sales being kind of the top line kind of what is the volume you're creating for your marketplace and then take rate is what do you take out of that? I mean, what are your revenues relativ…”
Boris Wertz Dec 28, 2015 ▶ 26:32 20 VC: The Ultimate Guide To Marketplaces with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures
Assertion Supported
Boris Wertz: Version One Ventures is investing out of a $35M fund
“We're now investing out of a thirty five million dollar early stage fund called Version One Ventures.”
Boris Wertz May 14, 2018 ▶ 3:03 20VC: Why Crypto Is The Biggest Disruptor To Hit VC In A Decade, The State of Crypto Today & Why Investing In Decentralized Platforms Requires A New Mental Model with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures

The other half of the tape: Boris Wertz's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 10 times in 4 episodes on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 10

Every mention by year

Appearances (2)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: Why Crypto Is The Biggest Disruptor To Hit VC In A Decade, The State of Crypto Today May 14, 2018 14m
20 VC: The Ultimate Guide To Marketplaces with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Dec 28, 2015 19m
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